| 18 STAR ANTIQUE AMERICAN FLAG WITH 13 STRIPES, A “DISUNION” FLAG, MADE WITH AN ABOLITIONIST MESSAGE, circa 1859-1861, EXCLUDING THE SLAVE STATES; WITH A 19TH STAR ADDED ON THE OBVERSE; OWNED BY HARVARD-TRAINED, MASSACHUSETTS PHYSICIAN BENJAMIN CUSHING, WHO VOLUNTEERED AS A U.S. ARMY SURGEON, DEVOID OF RANK OR PAY, STATIONED AT FORT MONROE, VIRGINIA, ‘CONTRABAND CAMP’ FOR ESCAPING SLAVES AND THE ONLY UNION-CONTROLLED, FORTIFIED BASE IN THE UPPER SOUTH |
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| Web ID: | 18j-805 |
| Available: | In Stock |
| Frame Size (H x L): | 47.5" x 85" |
| Flag Size (H x L): | 36.75" x 73.5" |
| Description: | |
| 18-star, 13-stripe, American national flag, made sometime between 1859 – 1861, immediately pre-Civil War or in the war’s opening year. Updated on the obverse to 19 stars, probably with the addition of Kansas in January of 1861, this is a “Disunion” flag, the star count of which excludes the Slave States. The practice of making such flags as a political statement began as early as the latter 1840’s, with the nation’s struggle over slavery coming to head. Tensions grew as the long-maintained 50-50 split of Free and Slave States, maintained by the Missouri Compromise of 1820, ended with the addition of California as the 31st state in 1850. This upset the balance of power in Congress in favor of Free States. Also of direct impact were details within the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act (also 1850), the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), and the Dred Scott decision (1857), all of which caused more ill will and anger than at almost any other point in American history. The most infamous physical brawl that took place on the floor of the U.S. Congress, occurred in 1858, over the proposed constitution for the Kansas Territory, that would have legalized slavery. The Republican party formed in 1854, in response to the related issues, running its first Presidential candidate in 1856, John Fremont, on the anti-slavery ticket. During this general era, while tempers flared, there were many hidden messages in early flags. 15 star flags, made in the period between 1848-1850, then 16 star flags, with the addition of California, are reported as flying in support of an abolitionist message, or of Fremont specifically, as its proponent. One rare broadside, made for the 1856 presidential campaign, displays a prominent 16 star flag, flanked by the words “All North” and “No South.” Minnesota joined in 1858 and Oregon in 1859, taking the count to 18 Free States, the number of stars displayed here. Though Abraham Lincoln, elected in 1860, urged the nation not to remove stars from the flag as Southern States seceded, this being in direct conflict of his goal to keep the Union together, the concept of altering the flag in this manner already having gained some popularity, continued throughout the war itself and appears to have persisted after. The flag is entirely hand-sewn. The stars are made of plain weave cotton and are single-appliquéd. This means that they were stitched to one side only, then a cut out was made on the reverse and the fabric under-hemmed, so that one star could be seen on both sides. I always find single-appliquéd stars more desirable, not only because they are evidence of a more difficult level of seam-work and stitching, but also because they are more visually intriguing. Both the sewing itself and stretching of the fabrics over time result in stars that can develop very irregular shapes, which is certainly the case here. The additional star is likewise made of cotton, though of a different variety. The canton and stripes are made of wool bunting. The rectangular patches at the extreme top and bottom of the hoist end Are called gussets. These were added at points where the flag received the most stress when flown, and are original to its construction. There is a wide linen binding along the hoist with two hand-sewn, whip-stitched grommets. Along this on the obverse, near the top, the letter “S” is stenciled in black, followed by a hand inscription that reads “2 yds.” to denote the flag’s length on the fly, in feet. On the reverse of the binding, near the top, the name “Benjamin Cushing” is inscribed in ink with a dip pen, accompanied, near the bottom, by a penciled inscription that reads simply “Dr. Cushing.” Dr. Benjamin Cushing (May 9th, 1822 – Oct. 16th, 1895) was a Harvard-trained physician and long-time, prominent citizen of Dorchester, Massachusetts. Born of two extremely prominent families, Benjamin’s great-great-grandfather on his mother’s side was Colonel Samuel Thaxter, who led the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in 1728 (a militia unit and the eldest charted military organization in the world that still exists today). Benjamin’s great-grandfather, Samuel Thaxter, Jr., married Mary Hawk Hancock, the widowed mother of John Hancock. One of Colonel Thaxter’s grandsons was Benjamin Lincoln, Revolutionary War major general, our nation’s first Secretary of War (1781-1781), and founding member of the Society of the Cincinnati. Son of a wealthy trader and magistrate, Benjamin Cushing was a lifetime philanthropist and ever-generous volunteer of his medical services. During the Civil War, without actually enlisting, without accepting military rank, and refusing pay, Benjamin traveled to Fort Monroe Virginia, where he served as a surgeon in the only Union-controlled, fortified base in the upper south. Nicknamed “Freedom Fort” by the many African American slaves who sought refuge there when escaping northward, Ft. Monroe, the largest stone structure ever built in America, is an island-based garrison situated near the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay, at the mouths of the James and York Rivers. This is the place where General Benjamin Butler declared the resulting freedom of the fleeing slaves as being taken from the South as a “contraband of war.” It is from here, while visiting, that Lincoln formulated his plan to retake Norfolk. One of the entities known to display flags with a number of stars less than the full count was the U.S. Navy, which maintained a very significant yard at Norfolk until seized by the Confederacy. One reason that lower counts were utilized was that it was easier to discern the stars as individual objects on a smaller flag, at a distance, if there were fewer of them. 13 stars was the usual count employed on U.S. Navy small boat ensigns, as they were called, a practice that endured until 1916, when an Executive Order of President Woodrow Wilson put an end to the tradition. But in the mid-19th century, some other counts were used. The Navy made its own flags, generally speaking. One of the identified variations employed 16 stars and 13 stripes. One of the surviving examples in this count, that dates to the 1850’s, bears a black-inked stencil from the Navy Yard at Charlestown, Massachusetts (Boston). Note how the blue canton rests on a red stripe, as opposed to white. When this occurs, some flag historians have referred to this as the “blood stripe” or the “war stripe”, suggesting that the flag was constructed in this fashion when the nation was at war. In actuality, because there was no official legislation regarding this facet of American flag design until 1912, there was no specified position. Here one may note that it rests on the 7th stripe. Whatever the case may be regarding its placement, the war stripe feature is highly coveted by collectors. The Navy Yard at Norfolk is a likely origin of the 18 star flag of Dr. Benjamin Cushing. According to vexillologist Peleg Harrison, the Norfolk yard produced examples with the blood stripe trait beginning in 1835 and for many years to follow, which Harrison relates to having been nicknames “Norfolk War Flags” by Navy men. The Cushing-marked example is almost certainly a ship’s flag, and though it does not precisely conform to U.S. Navy regulations in terms of height on the hoist measurement for a 6-foot flag, variation tends to be the rule, as opposed to the exception, when it comes to precise dimensions. Most of the Navy’s manufacturing was sub-contracted to wives, daughters, and other women, and while length on the fly seems to have been adhered to, the hoist measurement tends to fluctuate. The manner in which the binding is a affixed to the flag itself exhibits traits common to U.S. Navy construction. Given Benjamin Cushing’s selfless devotion to the Union cause and his keenly patriotic history, as well as the proximity of the Norfolk yard, it seems likely that a flag of this nature may have been gifted to him at some point during his time at Ft. Monroe, perhaps upon his departure. Goings on in the region, sandwiched between the Slave States of Maryland, a Border State, and Virginia, home to the Confederate States of America’s capitol, at Richmond, and so far south, being just 40 miles or so from the North Carolina Border, life at this Union outpost had to be interesting, with sailors, soldiers, slaves, Confederate prisoners, admirals and generals, even the president, coming and going. Immediately post-war, this is where Confederate President Jefferson Davis was sent for imprisonment following his capture. One of the reasons that antique American flags with 18 stars are of interest to collectors, in spite of their precise period of manufacture, or the purpose thereof, is simply due to the rarity of examples of any kind. Thomas Jefferson oversaw the Louisiana purchase in 1803, an acquisition from France constituting more than 800,000 square miles of land. This would eventually encompass all or a portion of 15 future states and 2 Canadian provinces. This included the city of New Orleans, which, at the time, had a population of about 10,000 and ranked among the 10 largest cities in the U.S.. Louisiana became a state unto itself on April 30th, 1812, representing approximately 50,000 square miles, or 16% of the original tract. At the time Louisiana gained statehood, the American national flag officially bore 15 stars and 15 stripes, subject to the Second Flag Act of 1794 (passed January 13th of that year, taking effect on May 1st, 1795. The flag did not officially change again until 1818. During the interim, 5 more states had joined the Union. The Third Flag Act, passed April 3rd, 1818, increased the official count of stars from 15 to 20, and reduced the stripe count to the original 13. Official is the operative word, because flags both private and commercial took great liberty with flag design throughout the 19th century. Most added a star as soon as a new state came in, if not sometimes even beforehand, in hopeful anticipation. In the period between the 1792 addition of Kentucky as the 15th state and the 1818 addition of 5 more states, evidence in the form of both a handful of surviving flags, and period illustrations, demonstrates that stripes were generally added along with stars. During congressional discussions in 1817, a speaker pointed out that there was a flag with 18 stars and 18 stripes flying over the Washington Navy Yard, while another with 7 stripes was flying over the U.S. Capitol. The reason for 7 stripes is not known, but odd irregularities of this nature are sometimes present in early examples. Whatever the case may be, most illustrations of flags with 15-19 stars, and/or actual flags, done in or around the period when we had that corresponding number of states, show a complement that included an equivalent number of stripes. Remarkably, just one 18-star, 18-stripe flag survives in the collection of the Louisiana State Museum. The flag is said to have been sewn for Colonel Philip Hickey, an officer in the War of 1812, a wealthy plantation owner and future Louisiana senator. The flag was made from silk dresses by the ladies of Hope Estate, one of his large plantations. Hickey desired a flag with 18 stars and 18 stripes to be present on the day of Louisiana's acceptance, to be displayed in patriotic celebration. It is said that he had ordered one from a commercial source, possibly the Washington Navy Yard, but was afraid that it would not arrive in time. A very small number of 18 star flags were produced later, either to reflect national disunion, like the example that is the subject of this narrative, or else to commemorate Louisiana’s entry as the 18th state, or perhaps simply the time period during which it was the most recent state to join. In the above cases, a flag made outside the 1812-1816 era would be far more likely to display 13 stripes instead of 18. In an exclusionary flag, 13 stripes would be an appropriate and expected count, simply omitting the stars belonging to Slave States. In a flag meant to commemorate the 1812-1816 period, however, while it should theoretically be expected to have 18 stripes, by the mid-late 19th century, flag-makers seeking seem to have all but forgotten that the concept had once been to add a stripe with every star. Among 18 star flags of the 19th century, this is a great one. The interesting visual traits present in the stars are wonderful, oriented in various directions on their vertical axis and exhibiting great folk qualities, with their bent arms and varied profiles. The elongated format is likewise attractive, as-is the wide binding, and this is the only 18 star flag of the 19th century that I can recall with a canton resting on the blood stripe, potentially representing, in this unusual instance, a “Norfolk war flag.” Lack of use of Americans flag by private citizens prior to the Civil War—something I did not discuss above—lends its own factor of rarity. The number pre-Civil War examples, across all known flags of the 19th century that have survived to the present day, constitutes between approximately 1 – 2 percent, while the attribution to Dr. Cushing, and the role he played, and the location in which he served, add their own degree of value to an already rare and wonderful flag. Mounting: The flag was mounted and framed by us in-house. We take great care in the mounting and preservation of flags and related textiles and have preserved thousands of examples. For 25 years we have maintained our own textile conservation department, led by a master’s degree level graduate from one of the nation’s top programs. The black-painted, hand-gilded and distressed molding is Italian. The background is 100% cotton twill, black in color, that has been washed and treated for colorfastness. The glazing is U.V. protective acrylic (Plexiglas). Feel free to contact us for more details. Condition: there is minor mothing throughout, accompanied by several areas of modest loss and one modest to moderate loss, all located within the last four stripes. Fabric of similar coloration was placed behind these areas during the mounting process. There is exceptionally minor staining along the hoist binding and in the stars, and there is some soiling in the striped field, beyond the canton, located in the 1st and 2nd stripes, and in the 6th through the 13th stripes. There is a small, dark stain with associated bleeding, in the red stripe beneath the canton. A darning repair was made to an L-shaped tear near the fly end of the 10th stripe. Many of my clients prefer early flags to show their age and history of use. |
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| Video: | |
| Collector Level: | Flags for the truest Patriots. My best offerings |
| Flag Type: | Sewn flag |
| Star Count: | 18 |
| Earliest Date of Origin: | 1859 |
| Latest Date of Origin: | 1861 |
| State/Affiliation: | Louisiana |
| War Association: | 1777-1860 Pre-Civil War |
| Price: | Please call (717) 676-0545 or (717) 502-1281 |
| E-mail: | info@jeffbridgman.com |
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